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Thursday 4 August 2016

Vladimir Putin not attending Rio 2016 Olympic Games opening ceremony


Russian president Vladimir Putin will not attend the Rio 2016 Olympics - despite the fact that Russia is hosting the 2024 event.

Reports in Russia quote Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that neither Putin or Chief of Staff Sergey Ivanov will bother getting on the plane for Brazil.

"The president does not have such trip on his schedule, and neither does the Head of the (Russian Presidential) Administration," Peskov said.

It is not yet clear who will represent Russia at the 2016 games, but there is clear anger behind the red curtain over the allegations of doping against its athletes.

The soundings from Moscow come just hours after Boxing authorities cleared all 11 Russian boxers to fight in Rio.

The decision was made by the International Boxing Association (AIBA) and comes just 48 hours before the opening ceremony.

The International Olympic Committee declined to issue a blanket ban on Russian competitors taking part in Rio 2016 despite an investigation detailing systematic doping in the Russian Olympic team.

A statement issued this morning said: "AIBA has carried out an individual analysis of the anti-doping record of each of the 11 Russian boxers qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

"That process is now complete and confirmation has been received from the IOC Review Panel that the following 11 Russian boxers are eligible to compete at Rio 2016."

The ruling means nine male boxers and two women will now compete for Russia at the Games.

They include heavyweight Evgeny Tishchenko, who won gold at the 2015 World Championships and the 2015 European Championships.

Instead of banning all Russian athletes from the Rio Olympics the IOC directed sports federations to allow Russian athletes to compete if they met a set of criteria.

These included a clean doping past and sufficient testing at international events.

In the men's boxing competition, Vasilii Egorov, Misha Aloian, Vladimir Nikitin, Adlan Abdurashidov, Vitaly Dunaytsev, Andrey Zamkovoy, Artem Chebotarev, Petr Khamukov and Evgeny Tishchenko were cleared to compete.

The two Russian women boxers Anastassiia Beliakova and Iaroslava Iakushina were also cleared to fight.

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